The Fable of the Bees

Bernard Mandeville

• 17 juni 2024
• 9781781984956

Samenvatting:

The Fable of the Bees a satirical poem, prose discussion, three essays and sixdialogues completed in 1729 exposes human vices but defends them as anecessity within a wealthy society. Mandeville’s bees thrive until they start livingby honesty and virtue… then they are impoverished. Mandeville did not playby the rules: he satirised the sins of society but also ridiculed the widespreadhypocrisy of deploring these sins whilst reaping their benefits. He and his workwere attacked for the rest of the century. The wicked bees’ comeuppance isnot for their vices society’s accepted moral code but, instead, for the follyof denying them. There is no judgement on whether a rich society is superiorto a poor one; Mandeville simply analyses, with incorrigible playfulness, thestatus quo as he sees it. The fascination of his arguments and the ensuingcontroversy have caught and influenced philosophers and thinkers ever since.Includes Mandeville’s complete text (both Parts 1 and 2), in a multi-voicerecording headed by the outstanding David Timson.